Peter Travers started out his review by saying, “The gamer kid in Steven Spielberg lets his VR freak flag fly in Ready Player One, a mindbending joyride that jacks you into a fantasia bursting with CGI wonders, dazzling cyperscapes mixed with live action, hidden Easter eggs and infinite pop-culture shoutouts to the 1980s. (Better brush up on everything from Alien to Zemeckis if you don’t want to be left behind.) The legendary director's aim in this go-for-broke adaptation of Ernest Cline’s 2011 sci-fi novel, a geek touchstone, is to get you in the game, and it's a blockbuster that aches to be interactive, Forget about headsets, however: Spielberg is in control. And why not? He's the maestro at this kind of stuff.”
First off, we need to say the surprising fact: It’s 2045. The world is practically in purgatory. Orphan Wade Watts, played by Tye Sheridan, is trapped in a terrible environment that time has made of Columbus, Ohio, where people live in trailers stacked on top of one another. The public escapes into the OASIS, a virtual-reality land made by game designer James Halliday (Mark Rylance) and his business partner Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg). Travers stated, “The dying legacy of Halliday's whacked-out Willy Wonka, seen via numerous flashbacks, is one last, kill-or-be-killed game for his followers to play.” The winner who finds the three hidden keys, which will take the winner to the ultimate Easter egg, will have Halliday’s fortune – and complete control over OASIS.
Time to kick things off! When Wade puts on the VR goggles, he turns into Parzival, the epitome cool-kid avatar. His all time best friend Aech, played by Lena Waithe, is a tech genius whose avatar wants to have some competition. Both Wade and Aech are looking on Art3mis, played by Oliva Cooke, a pink-haired speed racer and a real contestant in the film’s first challenge – a car race to end all car races. Obstacles for Wade, driving in a DeLorean to fight against King Kong, a “Jurassic Park” T-Rex and so many other game references that I will dare not ruin.
Wade passes the first challenge, followed by Aech, Art3mis and the Japanese duo of Daito (Win Morisaki) and Shoto (Philip Zhao) – gunters, or Easter egg hunters, that he knows only in the OASIS. However, there’s a villain out there: Nolan Sorrento, played by Ben Mendelsohn, a corporate magnate who wants to beat the kids at their own game. He unleashes a monster named i-R0k, voiced by T.J. Miller, who is, obviously, no match for one boy against everything, a Spielberg principal since the days of E.T. Travers said, “In a trivia challenge based on John Hughes movies, Wade will give Nolan the dusting of a lifetime, and working from a script by author Cline and Zak Penn, Spielberg concocts enough battles and showdowns to fill a dozen movies – though look out for a sequence on The Shining that is alone worth the price of admission.”
Is this a lot to take in? Of course it is. Travers said, “But Spielberg's visual inventiveness is unflagging. He stumbles only when trying to warm up the tech gadgetry with a personal touch, as when Wade and his friends, known as the High 5, finally connect in a reality that brings fantasy crashing down to earth. Sheridan and Cooke bring genuine romantic longing to their few scenes together. But the live-action segments of the movie are more buzz kill than bracing.”
Travers continued, “For those looking for Ready Player One to condemn the digi-verse as a destructive force against human connection, find another movie. The script is too shallow for that anyway, and don't look to the filmmaker – a child of divorce who found escape (and an eventual career) by getting happily lost in television, movies and early vid-games – for a lecture.” The head-spinning adventure won’t stop even when the sensory overload goes too far. If he has a chance to animate the Iron Giant fighting Mechagodzilla, he’ll do that. Travers noted, “At 71, this iconic director barely pays lip service to constructing a cautionary tale against anything that might help an alienated kid build an oasis of his or her own imagining.” As always, Spielberg is ready to play. Are you? Then see this movie to turn your gaming senses to the max.
I have never heard or read this book before the movie came out. When I was told what it was about, it looked to be really engaging. When I got my chance to watch the movie tonight, I had an extraordinarily enjoyable time watching it. I really felt like this movie revolving around and about video games will really interest people and suck them in. At least it will do a better job than “The Wizard” did. Go ahead and see the movie because it’s definitely a good one.
Alright everyone, check in tomorrow when I FINALLY end off “Ice Age Month.”
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